editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Science editor Geoff Brumfiel oversees coverage of everything from butterflies to black holes across NPR News programs and on NPR.org. Prior to becoming the editor for fundamental research news in April of 2016, Brumfiel worked for three years as a reporter covering physics and space. Brumfiel has carried his microphone into ghost villages created by the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. He's tracked the journey of highly enriched uranium as it was shipped out of Poland. For a story on how animals drink, he crouched for over an hour and tried to convince his neighbor's cat to lap a bowl of milk. Before NPR, Brumfiel was based in London as a senior reporter for Nature Magazine from 2007-2013. There he covered energy, space, climate, and the physical sciences. In addition to reporting, he was a member of the award-winning Nature podcast team. From 2002 – 2007, Brumfiel was Nature Magazine's Washington Correspondent, reporting on Congress, the Bush administration, NASA, and theNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Geoff BrumfielFri, 09 Dec 2016 06:08:25 +0000Geoff Brumfielhttp://tspr.org
Geoff BrumfielIn what could mark an escalation of tensions with the West, commercial satellite images suggest that Russia is moving a new generation of nuclear-capable missiles into Eastern Europe. Russia appears to be preparing to permanently base its Iskander missile system in Kaliningrad, a sliver of territory it controls along the Baltic coast between Lithuania and Poland. Arms control experts shared fresh satellite imagery with NPR, which they say provides evidence that the Iskander will soon be housed in the Russian-controlled enclave. The images show ground being cleared for tent-like shelters used at other Iskander bases, says Jeffrey Lewis , a nonproliferation expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies . "The pattern, and the size, and the location strongly suggest to us that this is the beginning phase of construction of the shelters for Iskander," Lewis says. Lewis and Finnish defense analyst Veli-Pekka Kivimäki discovered the construction through digital sleuthing.Russia Seen Moving New Missiles To Eastern Europehttp://tspr.org/post/russia-seen-moving-new-missiles-eastern-europe
97579 as http://tspr.orgThu, 08 Dec 2016 22:40:00 +0000Russia Seen Moving New Missiles To Eastern EuropeGeoff BrumfielScientists have pinpointed the ticklish bit of a rat's brain. The results, published in the journal Science , are another step toward understanding the origins of ticklishness, and its purpose in social animals. Although virtually every human being on the planet has been tickled, scientists really don't understand why people are ticklish . The idea that a certain kind of touching could easily lead to laughter is confusing to a neuroscientist, says Shimpei Ishiyama , a postdoctoral research fellow at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, Germany. "Just a physical touch inducing such an emotional output — this is very mysterious," Ishiyama says. "This is weird." To try and get a handle on how tickling works, Ishiyama studied rats, who seem to enjoy being tickled, according to previous research . He inserted electrodes into the rats' brains, in a region called their somatosensory cortex. That's a part of the brain that processes touch, and when Ishiyama tickledBrain Scientists Trace Rat Ticklishness To Play Behaviorhttp://tspr.org/post/brain-scientists-trace-rat-ticklishness-play-behavior
96479 as http://tspr.orgThu, 10 Nov 2016 19:49:00 +0000Brain Scientists Trace Rat Ticklishness To Play BehaviorGeoff BrumfielA report out this morning from Australian investigators offers a handful of new clues about the greatest aviation mystery of the 21st century: the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 . Based on a fresh satellite analysis and debris found on beaches along the African coast and several small islands, Australian investigators say they now believe the aircraft plunged rapidly into the southern Indian Ocean. The scenario might help answer questions about the plane's final minutes, but does little to explain its disappearance. Flight 370 vanished in March 2014 during a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. It disappeared from air traffic control screens while over the South China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam. Subsequent analysis of military radar and the aircraft's own satellite communication system suggest the plane might have turned west, then south. Ultimately, investigators believe it flew for several hours until its engines ran out of fuel over a remote stretch ofMissing Malaysia Airlines Jet Plunged Into Sea, New Report Suggests http://tspr.org/post/new-report-suggests-missing-malaysia-airlines-jet-plunged-sea
96119 as http://tspr.orgWed, 02 Nov 2016 15:01:00 +0000Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet Plunged Into Sea, New Report Suggests Geoff BrumfielThe remains of two gigantic dinosaurs discovered in Australia may shed light on how dinosaurs spread across the globe. The dinosaurs are both titanosaurs , massive plant-eaters with long necks and thick limbs. The first, a new species known as Savannasaurus elliottorum , was about half the length of a basketball court and lived about 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Paleontologists also found the skull of a Diamantinasaurus matildae , which grew longer than a city bus and was first identified in 2009 based on fossils in the same region as these latest finds. "These dinosaurs were co-existing happily, or so it would seem," Stephen Poropat, a paleontologist at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History in Winton, Australia, said in a video interview . The fossils may help explain how giant plant-eaters migrated across the Earth. According to researchers, the titanosaurs' features indicate they are likely descendants of dinosaur lineages that originated inDinosaurs Down Under May Help Explain Prehistoric Migrationshttp://tspr.org/post/dinosaurs-down-under-may-help-explain-prehistoric-migrations
95597 as http://tspr.orgThu, 20 Oct 2016 20:42:00 +0000Dinosaurs Down Under May Help Explain Prehistoric MigrationsGeoff BrumfielThe news this week. For that reason, we're bringing you this photo of a baby elephant named Jotto cuddled up to an ostrich named Pea. Conservationists with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya came across Pea two years ago today, while they were rescuing a different infant elephant. The trust is well-known for its rescue and rehabilitation program for orphaned elephants. Pea and her brother, Pod, were brought back to its Nairobi nursery to be raised as part of the elephant herd. Pod eventually struck out on his own, but Pea has remained. According to the trust : "Pea obviously felt totally 'at home' amongst the orphaned elephants, allowing them to suckle her thighs, lying down in the soft earth pile with them when they enjoyed dusting their wet bodies after the mudbath." Her caregivers believe that the ostrich has "imprinted" with the elephant herd. And, so, she passes her days playing with her elephant friends. Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit NPR .In Other News: This Photo Of An Elephant Snuggling An Ostrichhttp://tspr.org/post/other-news-photo-elephant-snuggling-ostrich
95363 as http://tspr.orgFri, 14 Oct 2016 17:51:00 +0000In Other News: This Photo Of An Elephant Snuggling An OstrichGeoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The Nobel Prize in physics this morning has been awarded to three scientists. They won for their work exploring new phases of matter. Joining us to talk about the winners is NPR's science editor, Geoff Brumfiel. Good morning. GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: Good morning. MONTAGNE: Let's start with these researchers. Who are they? BRUMFIEL: They are David Thouless of the University of Washington Seattle, Duncan Haldane of Princeton University and Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University. And they won for, as you said, work on unusual phases of matter, and specifically - I'm going to have to read this out loud; I had to write it down - for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. MONTAGNE: I see why you wrote it down - quite a mouthful. BRUMFIEL: (Laughter). Yeah, yeah, it's really something. But let's just break it down. So topological phases of matter - we'll work back-to-front here.Physics Nobel Goes To 3 Scientists For Insights Into Matter's Behaviorhttp://tspr.org/post/physics-nobel-goes-3-scientists-insights-matters-behavior
94934 as http://tspr.orgTue, 04 Oct 2016 10:01:00 +0000Physics Nobel Goes To 3 Scientists For Insights Into Matter's BehaviorGeoff BrumfielWhen it comes to waves, it doesn't get much bigger than the gravitational variety. Einstein predicted that huge events — like black holes merging — create gravitational waves. Unlike most waves we experience, these are distortions in space and time. They roll across the entire universe virtually unimpeded. Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, but none were spotted until recently. Given their incredible power, why did it take a century to locate them? To find out, I went to see where the detection finally occurred. It's just off Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish, La. To get there you head through town, past the "Gold and Guns" pawn shop and up a country road. Turn onto an empty lane and eventually some low buildings emerge from a forest of gangly pine trees. This is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory . That's kind of a mouthful, so scientists just call it LIGO. Physicist Joe Giaime of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge runsHow To Catch The Biggest Wave In The Universehttp://tspr.org/post/how-catch-biggest-wave-universe
92954 as http://tspr.orgWed, 17 Aug 2016 08:33:00 +0000How To Catch The Biggest Wave In The UniverseGeoff BrumfielThe U.K.'s fraught decision to exit the European Union was motivated by everyday issues such as trade and immigration. But its impact could soon be felt in some of Europe's most esoteric locales — like particle accelerators. That's because scientists in Europe pool their resources to build everything from massive telescopes to deep space probes. And the U.K. is a major scientific player. Britain's vote to depart the European Union won't totally upend scientific cooperation, but "scientists are nonetheless worried," says John Womersley , the head of the U.K.'s Science and Technology Facilities Council, which oversees participation in large projects. The biggest experiment affected is a nuclear fusion reactor being built in the south of France. Known as ITER , the roughly $20 billion project is designed to produce energy through the fusion of light atoms of hydrogen. It's an unprecedented technical endeavor that involves seven international partners, including the European Union, whichBrexit's Impact Stretches From Deep Space To Nuclear Fusionhttp://tspr.org/post/brexits-impact-stretches-deep-space-nuclear-fusion
90712 as http://tspr.orgWed, 29 Jun 2016 17:37:00 +0000Brexit's Impact Stretches From Deep Space To Nuclear FusionGeoff BrumfielUpdated at 6:30 a.m. ET A small plane on a daring winter evacuation mission from the South Pole landed safely Wednesday night at Punta Arenas, Chile. The National Science Foundation, which runs the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station , says the Twin Otter rescue aircraft took off from the South Pole with two patients early Wednesday. It arrived at a British base 1,500 miles away shortly after 1 p.m. ET before continuing on to Chile. The South Pole station is staffed year round, but normally nobody enters or leaves during the winter months, which corresponds to the North American summer. "It's mind-boggling how cold it gets down there," says Jerry Macala, who oversaw the first-ever evacuation from the station in 2001. Temperatures routinely drop below -70 Fahrenheit, and the C-130 transport aircraft used during the summer months cannot land, Macala tells Kelly McEvers on Wednesday's All Things Considered . Macala says that landing a plane in the perpetual night is considered extremelyRisky South Pole Rescue Succeeds As 2 Patients Are Airlifted Outhttp://tspr.org/post/risky-south-pole-rescue-succeeds-2-patients-are-airlifted-out
90397 as http://tspr.orgWed, 22 Jun 2016 20:44:00 +0000Risky South Pole Rescue Succeeds As 2 Patients Are Airlifted OutGeoff BrumfielUpdated 5:45 p.m. ET: Plane lands at the pole The U.S. government has launched a rescue mission to the South Pole after a worker at its Amundsen-Scott research station fell ill. The evacuation comes at the height of winter on the Antarctic continent — a time when there are usually no flights in or out of the pole. A Twin Otter aircraft has landed at the pole after a 1,500-mile journey from the British Antarctic Survey's Rothera Station . The National Science Foundation says the crew will rest for some hours and then assess weather conditions before attempting the return journey. A second plane was stationed at Rothera as a backup. The mission is considered risky. The South Pole is currently in a state of perpetual darkness, and as NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports: "Normally no flights go in or out from February to October because of the extreme weather, such as temperatures around -70 degrees Fahrenheit." According to the National Weather Service, the current temperature at theU.S. Mounts Daring Rescue Mission At The South Polehttp://tspr.org/post/us-mounts-daring-rescue-mission-south-pole
90351 as http://tspr.orgTue, 21 Jun 2016 20:32:00 +0000U.S. Mounts Daring Rescue Mission At The South PoleGeoff BrumfielScientists announced Wednesday that they have once again detected ripples in space and time from two black holes colliding far away in the universe. The discovery comes just months after the first-ever detection of such "gravitational waves," and it suggests that smaller-sized black holes might be more numerous than many had thought. "It looks like there are going to be more of these black holes out there than we imagined," says David Reitze , the executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which recorded the latest rattle on Dec. 26, 2015. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves a century ago as part of his General Theory of Relativity. The theory radically re-envisioned the force of gravity as a distortion in space-time. Under this theory, space is flexible and capable of wobbling. "It's like a Jell-O that we all swim in," says Gabriela González , a researcher at Louisiana State University and head of LIGO's scientificGravitational Waves From Colliding Black Holes Shake Scientists' Detectors Againhttp://tspr.org/post/gravitational-waves-colliding-black-holes-shake-scientists-detectors-again
90043 as http://tspr.orgWed, 15 Jun 2016 17:24:00 +0000Gravitational Waves From Colliding Black Holes Shake Scientists' Detectors AgainGeoff BrumfielHouse and Senate negotiators have agreed on a plan to update a 40-year-old law regulating the safety of chemicals. The bipartisan legislation would update the Toxic Substances Control Act , which became law in 1976. The original act gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to require testing and reporting of potentially harmful chemicals. But as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, the law didn't apply to most chemicals already on the market: "It assumed that thousands of untested chemicals already in use were safe. "The new legislation, if it becomes law, would require the EPA to begin evaluating those untested older chemicals. It would also allow federal regulations to pre-empt those adopted by states, even if the state regulations are more stringent." The compromise bill — which the House and Senate are expected to vote on as soon as next week — is not universally supported. A group of House Democrats said in a statement that the legislation is "significantly weaker" than aLawmakers Reach A Deal To Expand Regulation Of Toxic Chemicalshttp://tspr.org/post/lawmakers-agree-deal-expand-regulation-toxic-chemicals
88973 as http://tspr.orgFri, 20 May 2016 16:45:00 +0000Lawmakers Reach A Deal To Expand Regulation Of Toxic ChemicalsGeoff BrumfielA team of scientists has developed "robot flies" about the size of a quarter that can perch on almost any surface. The flies were developed at Harvard's Microrobotics Laboratory , where researchers look to Mother Nature for design inspiration. For years, they have been working on fly-sized drones that could be deployed in groups. The drones could, in theory, be outfitted with cameras and provide multiple vantage points of a disaster, or link up to make an improvised communications network. The roboflies work, but they also suck up a lot of energy staying airborne. They currently get power from wires attached to the ground, according to a paper in the journal Science . To try and make the little robots more energy efficient, researchers have figured out how to make them perch on surfaces. Perching is up to a thousand times more energy-efficient than hovering, the researchers say. Perfecting the perch could dramatically lengthen the time that roboflies can operate in the field. TheWATCH: 'Robot Flies' Learn To Stick The Landinghttp://tspr.org/post/watch-robot-flies-learn-stick-landing
88918 as http://tspr.orgThu, 19 May 2016 18:35:00 +0000WATCH: 'Robot Flies' Learn To Stick The LandingGeoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.In Polluted India, Negative Ion Necklaces Vow To Help You Breathe Easierhttp://tspr.org/post/polluted-india-negative-ion-necklaces-vow-help-you-breathe-easier
88632 as http://tspr.orgThu, 12 May 2016 20:46:00 +0000In Polluted India, Negative Ion Necklaces Vow To Help You Breathe EasierGeoff BrumfielThe National Institutes of Health is overhauling the leadership of its world-renowned Clinical Center, after an independent task force found the center was putting research ahead of patient safety. As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce has reported , the Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., is the largest research hospital in the world. Patients come from across the country seeking its experimental therapies. But a recent independent review found safety problems at two laboratories, including one run by Dr. Steven Rosenberg , a world-renowned researcher at the National Cancer Institute. Rosenberg is a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, which harnesses the body's own immune system to fight disease. In 2015, the NIH was forced to close the Clinical Center's in-house pharmaceutical production facility after inspectors found fungal contamination, insects in light fixtures and problems in the air-handling system. That incident prompted the formation of an independent task force to review the ClinicalNIH Announces Leadership Shake-Up At Renowned Research Hospitalhttp://tspr.org/post/national-institutes-health-announces-leadership-shake
88518 as http://tspr.orgTue, 10 May 2016 15:17:00 +0000NIH Announces Leadership Shake-Up At Renowned Research HospitalGeoff BrumfielScientists have had a literal breakthrough off the coast of Mexico. After weeks of drilling from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, they have reached rocks left over from the day the Earth was hit by a killer asteroid . The cataclysm is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. "This was probably the most important event in the last 100 million years," says Joanna Morgan , a geophysicist at Imperial College in London and a leader of the expedition. Since the 1980s, researchers have known about the impact site, located near the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. Known as Chicxulub, the crater is approximately 125 miles across. It was created when an asteroid the size of Staten Island, N.Y., struck Earth around 66 million years ago. The initial explosion from the impact would have made a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker. The searing heat started wildfires many hundreds of miles away. After that, came an unscheduled winter. Sulfur, ash and debris clouded the sky. Darkness fellGeologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing Asteroidhttp://tspr.org/post/geologists-find-clues-crater-left-dinosaur-killing-asteroid
88349 as http://tspr.orgFri, 06 May 2016 12:38:00 +0000Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing AsteroidGeoff BrumfielA small mammal has sabotaged the world's most powerful scientific instrument. The Large Hadron Collider , a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable. "We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal," says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN , the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was "a weasel, probably." (Update: An official briefing document from CERN indicates the creature may have been a marten.) The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it discovered in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it isWeasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Colliderhttp://tspr.org/post/weasel-apparently-shuts-down-worlds-most-powerful-particle-collider
88018 as http://tspr.orgFri, 29 Apr 2016 15:03:00 +0000Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle ColliderGeoff BrumfielOn Tuesday, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced a plan to send interstellar probes to the Alpha Centauri star system. The audacious project would use a giant laser on Earth to accelerate scores of postage-stamp-size spacecraft to nearly the speed of light. They would cross the void in just 20 years — virtually no time on the scale of interstellar travel. The plan for " Breakthrough Starshot " laid out at the news conference looks both ambitious and exciting. But if it's really going to work, there are several down-to-earth problems these would-be star trekkers will have to overcome. Do You Have A Permit For That Planetary Laser? Starshot's tiny probes are supposed to be given a big push by a mammoth 100 gigawatt laser back on Earth. A laser that powerful could also fry anything in its path, including orbiting satellites. "If somebody says, 'Hey look, I'm concerned about you hitting a potential satellite,' " says Pete Worden, the project'sStephen Hawking's Plan For Interstellar Travel Has Some Earthly Obstacleshttp://tspr.org/post/stephen-hawkings-plan-interstellar-travel-has-some-earthly-obstacles
87363 as http://tspr.orgThu, 14 Apr 2016 17:23:00 +0000Stephen Hawking's Plan For Interstellar Travel Has Some Earthly ObstaclesGeoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.SpaceX Rocket Sticks The Landing After Resupply Missionhttp://tspr.org/post/spacex-rocket-sticks-landing-after-resupply-mission
87062 as http://tspr.orgFri, 08 Apr 2016 22:35:00 +0000SpaceX Rocket Sticks The Landing After Resupply MissionGeoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.SpaceX Rocket Sticks The Landing After Resupply Missionhttp://tspr.org/post/spacex-rocket-sticks-landing-after-resupply-mission-0
87063 as http://tspr.orgFri, 08 Apr 2016 22:35:00 +0000SpaceX Rocket Sticks The Landing After Resupply Mission